UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative at Penn State is offering free online professional development to Pennsylvania’s K-12 administrators, including superintendents, principals and Intermediate Unit executive directors.
On its website, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) lists the initiative’s 25-hour “Leading Amidst Difficult Issues Through Trauma-Informed Practices” as a module that meets Act 45 requirements. The PDE website also lists Act 45, otherwise known as Pennsylvania Inspired Leadership continuing education, offerings from Penn State’s College of Education. Pennsylvania administrators must accumulate 180 Act 45 hours every five years.
The initiative’s self-paced Act 45 module helps administrators build a district and/or school culture in which safe difficult-topic discussions occur across multiple perspectives.
“We’re thrilled to help K-12 administrators navigate an increasingly complex landscape, suggest strategies for strengthening civic discourse in their districts and schools and provide opportunities for them, their teachers and their students to sharpen their critical thinking and other vital skills,” said Boaz Dvir, the initiative’s founding director and an associate professor of journalism in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.
This Act 45 module expands upon the three free self-paced online modules that the initiative has offered teachers around the country for the past several years.
The initiative’s Act 45 module combines 15 hours of asynchronous online learning with 10 hours of embedded work. The reflection questions ask participants to facilitate discussions of difficult issues and report about their actions and experiences.
“Over the span of the course, leaders define what makes an issue ‘difficult,’ learn why educators and leaders should engage in difficult issues, prepare to support educators in teaching difficult topics using trauma-informed practices, learn how to facilitate a discussion of difficult issues and plan to support teachers in their classroom application,” said Danielle Butville, the initiative’s assistant director.
Based in Penn State’s Bellisario College, the initiative is part of the Hammel Family Human Rights Initiative. It provides customized professional learning to K-12 educators in Pennsylvania and across the country. Program participants identify difficult issues in their curricula or settings, come up with compelling questions, seek credible sources, collect and analyze data, investigate their findings with colleagues and initiative facilitators and design and implement classroom- and/or school-applications. The initiatives offer year- and semester-long programs, workshops and online modules.